Date: 03/10/2015
Writer: Jane Moorman, 505-249-0527, jmoorman@nmsu.edu National studies have found that 30 to 40 percent of all entering college freshmen are unprepared for college-level math, reading and writing.

Students walk to classes at NMSU Grants. A new, five-year, $2.6 million grant will enable the campus to move to a campus-wide, student-centered, activity-based learning environment.

At New Mexico State University’s Grants campus, students are experiencing low course completion rates in developmental education, critical college gateway and high-demand technology courses, resulting in low associate degree and certificate completions.

“We are experiencing decreasing graduation rates in our degree and certificate programs. Only 233 degrees were awarded over a seven-year period,” said Rolando Rael, NMSU Grants Title V director, during an NMSU Scholarly Excellence Rally March 6. “The low student success rates indicate the developmental classes may not be addressing the real learning needs of our students.”

“A basic premise of the community college mission is ‘open admissions,’ which means that students are accepted into college at whatever academic entry point they are at. With NMSU moving to the new Guaranteed Pathways Program, students who do not meet NMSU academic standards will be channeled to our community colleges,” said Felicia Casados, NMSU Grants president.

“The types of funding support Title V is providing to our community colleges is vital to enable us to develop innovative and accelerated methods to help our students complete a higher education, either a certificate or associate degree, and be ‘transfer ready’ to complete a bachelor’s degree,” she said. <more>